ILLUSTRATED SCRAPS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVI, Issue 39, 15 February 1905, Page 9

ILLUSTRATED SCRAPS.

OIL ON TRUCKLED WATERS. The practice of spreading a thin film of oil over thr breaking wave* of a heavy f-1-.a. and thus for a time assuaging it= fur;.. ;ind making a little t.en;porarv oasis of unbroken water, is .1. very old hlra for assisting a vessel when bauJy buffeted by storm and tempest. \arious methods have been tried with varying success. Bags of oil that, gradually allow their contents to escape and .-pread over the surface around the ship, hos.l: and machinery for pumping oil upon the wavo and itiiiuy other arrangements towards the »ame end have been trtied. but a compact, handy, and effective appliance for erie purpose h.'.s yet to be invented. That is if the "bottle gnu." invented recently by V'u-t , -Admiral Gui-mares. of the Brazilian Navy, has n«>t solved the ijuestion. The srnn is a handy little piece, mounted on a pivnt carriage, which is bolted down to the deck, so that there is no recoil. !r is made, uf bronze, but The chamber ar. the breech which contains The propelling charge is of steel. Th** charge, in a. brass ren tral-frre cylinder, is loaded into the gun from the rear, as it is a" brerehloadrng piece, with an interrupted screw ping to close it. The borp of t.he gnn is of much greater diiuacter than T,he powder chamber, and tie projectile, which is nothing more than an ordin ary wine-bottle filled with sawdust steeped in oil, is entered it the muzzle and rainmrd home. The advantage of this is obvious. «in-ce there would never he ajiy difficulty in providing a supply of these fragile projectile*. When the gun i.* discharged the bottle is. of course, broken, aud with its contents scattered over the water for

] It is interesting to recall that in I ' ISSS trials were made on boaru the : North (Jennan Lloyd liners with rockets containing oil, which were fired I ahead of the ships. The latP Mγ Dixon j Kemp calculated that to make a con-» 1 tinuous oily path for a ihiu travelling

, a considerable distance. It rirryJ ] ahead, to form a smooth pathway for the advancing vessel, it requires l;i be discharged evxery tive minute*, but. if the vessel is stationary or 'Iying-to, | one round every twenty minutes is -said j to be? sufficient. I

A GOOD HAUL : A STUDY AT LJLAO-YAS(J. ( Sketched in Manchuria. )-

A XOVEL OIL-PRO-JECTOS:' A BRAZILIAN" ADMIRAL'S DEVICE FOR CALMIXG TROUBLED WATERS.

it thp rate of 13 knots, fiv-e rockets would have to be fired every seven seconds, and that a ship travelling at this rato across the Atlantic in a gale vvonld hare to tire hali a million rocfe-i ?ts. at a cost of more than JS 1*2.000. to -ecurc a smooth passage.